24/7 Tarrant County child care options are limited. How can working parents get access?

Layla Alston, 4, was enjoying barbecue chicken, macaroni and cheese, carrots and peas for dinner on Thursday evening when she paused to show off her Disney princess dress.

In between bites of her feast, she stood up from the table to twirl in her yellow Belle dress, causing her skirt to flow and sparkle outward. After her impromptu fashion show — followed by a short performance of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” — Alston made her way to a magnetic white board to identify shapes, colors and numbers. Her peers were doing similar, hands-on activities until bedtime, 7:30-8 p.m., or until their parents picked them up after work. The last child would leave the home-based child care program by 10 p.m. on Thursday, but other days, some would come and go at later hours.

This is a typical evening at Future Scholars’ Childcare and Transportation, a 24/7 child care home in Grand Prairie on the edge of Tarrant County that serves children from 6 weeks old to 12 years old. The around-the-clock operation, nestled inside owner and director Roslyn Chaney’s cozy brick home, is part of a small percentage of programs in Tarrant County that accommodate parents with work schedules outside of the typical 9-5, such as nurses and law enforcement officers. Three out of the eight children enrolled at Future Scholars’ typically stay overnight — or come and go during nighttime hours — while their parents are at work, according to Chaney.

“I think someone that operates a 24/7 child care (program) are the ones that really, really have that love and that heart,” said Chaney, who’s been operating the 24/7 program for 14 years. “It’s definitely not about the money… it’s just making sure these parents have a network to care for their kids, have someone they can depend on.”

A recent report from the Early Learning Alliance, a coalition of more than 50 organizations focused on bettering children’s education and lives, found that 30 out of about 1,000 child care programs in Tarrant County served children on nights and weekends in the fourth quarter of 2023. This accounts for 2% of child care centers and 6% of home-based programs.

In a survey conducted by the alliance last month, additional data shows about 3% of child care programs countywide provide care before 6 a.m. and about 24% of programs provide care after 6 p.m. — but this latter percentage drops to 6% when looking at programs open after 6:30 p.m., according to Early Learning Alliance Director Bethany Edwards. Fewer than 2% of programs open both before 6 a.m. and after 6:30 p.m.

National statistics show that about 40% of U.S. children in child care and early education programs utilize nontraditional hours and are most likely to be from working families who earn lower incomes, who have lower education levels and who are Black or Hispanic, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

The lack of child care and early education that accommodates nontraditional hours is an equity issue, and parents who need access to this care are more likely to face obstacles with finding and retaining employment, Edwards said. For providers, finding staff during the day is already a challenge alone and providing care during extended hours is typically more expensive due to costs of additional staff training and facility requirements, such as providing a bed for each child. The weekly price for child care at Future Scholars starts at $250 for infants, toddlers and preschoolers and $190 for school-age children.

“Young children in single parent households, who are Black, and whose families have lower incomes are most likely to need child care during nonstandard hours,” Edwards said. “Additionally, children who need care during nontraditional hours are more likely to be in unlicensed care, which is not held to the minimum health and safety licensing requirements.”

Ariana Arriago, a mother of a 3-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter who are enrolled at Future Scholars, said it was difficult to find child care that was flexible with her work schedule that changes every quarter. Arriago, who lives in DeSoto south of Dallas and works in Fort Worth for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, currently drops off her children, Carmine and Natalia, at about 1 p.m. and picks them up at about 9 p.m. Her previous schedules have required her to drop them off at 3:30 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. and pick them up respectively in the early afternoon or just before the scheduled bedtime at Future Scholars.

Before finding Future Scholars, Arriago considered quitting her job after hitting scheduling road blocks with three other providers who were unable to accommodate her hours, she said. Arriago has no family members in the area to lean on, and her husband has been deployed at Texas’ southern border as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, a border security initiative prompted by rising border crossings, for the entirety of their children’s lives.

“I definitely think there’s a huge need for 24-hour child care just because in the law enforcement career field and medical field, and any type of emergency services medical career field, it’s very difficult to find dependent child care,” Arriago said. “I see it every day that (coworkers) complain about not having reliable child care.”

Kari Harley, another parent with two children enrolled at Future Scholars, worked as a bartender when her children, 5-year-old Bryson and 2-year-old Micah, first joined the home-based program. She would pick them up after her shifts ended around 2-3 a.m., she said. Now, her current job of cleaning homes gives her a standard, but fluctuating, daytime work schedule with her children at Future Scholars during that time. Utilizing a scholarship from Child Care Management Services to help pay for her children’s child care has made it possible for her work, she said.

“I’m really thankful for CCMS because if I didn’t have CCMS, I don’t know how I would afford daycare or how I would go to work or pay my bills. I worry about what’s going to happen when I do lose that, ” Harley, of Arlington, said.

Directors such as Chaney said the need for child care spaces with extended hours is evident, but finding early educators who are committed to sustaining that level of care can be difficult. Chaney was inspired to open her business through her relationship with the owner and director of another local 24/7 program who cared for some of her children when she previously was working at a bank, she said.

Patricia Wright, owner and director of Wings of a Dove Child Care in Arlington, has provided 24-hour child care for 19 years, she said. Two of her seven enrolled children, ages 3 and 5, stay in her care overnight. Their parents work at General Motors and in the restaurant industry and are usually picked up between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. Wright has one other part-time teacher who helps her run the program.

Although Wright emphasizes she makes time for going out to restaurants or taking vacations like people in other professions, she acknowledges that she also enjoys being at home with the children while other early educators tend to prefer a less intense work schedule.

“It’s a personal choice. You have to really be totally in it and totally committed to it when you start doing 24 hours because it is a lot of your time,” Wright said. “There’s not a lot of us. I know that much.”

According to Edwards, of the Early Learning Alliance, there are no financial incentives for programs to be open during nontraditional hours. The sector needs support from other industries that are reliant upon those hours, and the alliance encourages them to advocate alongside early educators for solutions to those gaps.

“We need to remember that we’re talking about businesses, often small businesses, who are desperately trying to stay open, retain their staff and pay them a good wage, and provide quality care and education to the next generation. That’s a heavy lift without adding in the complexities and challenges of operating during the evening, overnight, and on the weekend,” Edwards said.

The findings of the Early Learning Alliance’s report, “Early Care and Education in Tarrant County, Texas: Community Feedback on Child Care Navigation,” related to child care needs of families with irregular working hours or with children with disabilities are being used to inform the operations of the Tarrant County Child Care Navigation Pilot Program. This initiative aims to help families find appropriate care that meets these needs while giving providers support with developmental screenings, mental health resources and other services dedicated to inclusive learning.

Three child care navigators have been hired by My Health My Resources of Tarrant County through the program to facilitate better connections among providers, families and existing resources. The “high and increasing volume of referrals including child care needs” prompted these additional roles through Help Me Grow North Texas’ navigation system that connects families with community-based resources.

For Marquise Kelly, a mother of a 3-year-old enrolled at Wings of a Dove Child Care, she believes better advertisement of home-based, 24/7 programs is needed, so more parents are aware that it’s an option for them. Kelly has noticed that her daughter Justice has made more educational progress at her age while at Wings of a Dove compared to Justice’s older brother who attended a child care center.

“I don’t think that a lot of parents really know about these at-home daycares,” Kelly said. “I just kind of wish that as parents I think we just knew more about it, the educational aspect of it. I really don’t feel like Justice is just a number there.”

Kelly also noted how developing a relationship with Wright, the director and owner, has been key in establishing trust and a sense of flexibility she may not receive at other programs.

“It’s very personal, and that’s what I really, really like about it,” she said. “(Wright) has been there for me. If it wasn’t me, it was Ms. Pat. If Justice wasn’t with me, she was with Ms. Pat… she’s like a mother to me.”

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